Monday, March 23 – Thursday, March 26
PhD students Janelle Domantay and Erin Blackley attended and presented at the ACEEE 2026 Hot Water & Hot Air Forums in Phoenix, AZ this week, representing AMBER Lab’s ongoing research on heat pump water heaters. The Forums are the largest hot water forum in the country, bringing together researchers, manufacturers, utilities, and policymakers working on efficiency solutions for space and water heating.
The conference is split across three days, with the first two days featuring the Hot Air Forum, and the latter two featuring the Hot Water Forum (HWF). This year marks AMBER’s first presentations at the HWF, which is more commonly attended by industry partners and labs than academics. Janelle presented “Maximizing Hot Water Output for Small-Volume Heat Pump Water Heaters”, addressing strategies to improve performance in compact HPWH systems.
Erin Blackley presenting 3D-printed models to conference attendees.
Erin presented “Getting 50 Gallons Out of 40 Gallons: Phase Change Material Heat Exchangers to Eliminate Up-Sizing of 120V Heat Pump Water Heaters”, exploring the use of phase change material heat exchangers to increase effective hot water delivery capacity without requiring larger or higher-voltage units.
“I really appreciated how much the presenters focused on multi-family housing applications.” Domantay remarks.